The Sansones and Wal-Mart Blogged-Out and Twitter Whipped…Again.

Yesterday, per the Post-Dispatch, Wal-Mart company spokeswoman Erica Jones wrote in an email to the newspaper, “… (W)e continue to believe a new Walmart would contribute toward the economic health of Ellisville but unfortunately we were not able to come to terms for this project.”

I know just how Ms. Jones feels.  On a good day I can hardly come to terms with the havoc this proposed redevelopment project wrecked on this community.  I still find it hard to explain to reporters in polite, printable fashion the unbelievably nasty episodes that took place within this four square mile municipality.  One was simply incredulous because it just didn’t make sense.  I agreed that some of it didn’t, but that was hardly a prerequisite for reporting it.

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Sicilian Kisses from the Sansones?…or an Open Letter to Mssrs. James, Timothy, Douglas and Nicholas Sansone.

Gentlemen,

Light a cigar and pour a glass of wine. I have some stories to tell you and a bit of advice. Bear with me. This will take a few minutes. If you don’t like good stories, just skip the next seven paragraphs and we’ll cut to the chase down below. Ellisville…behaving badly in City Hall chambers…the Wal-Mart TIF…and how not to do business with municipalities.

I’m half-Sicilian and second generation American. It’s a blessing and a curse. I can charcoal grill a rack of marinated spendini like nobody’s business. I get pissed-off easily. My cucidatis are better than my mother’s. I never had the patience for the kind of fine needlework her generation could do.

When do you stop being Sicilian? When you have to look at a recipe for cassata or you forget how to curse in Italian and fall back on English? And the hand gestures…who can remember what they mean?

Faked Subpoenas, Two Guys and a Law Firm or…Why I Did Not Become a Lawyer.

I thought about becoming a lawyer.  I was pre-law by default due to my choice of major.  Civil Rights or Environmental Law seemed honorable fields at the time.  Every lawyer I spoke with in those areas assured me I was destined for poverty…and advised that the profession was so sleazy in general, I would not be able to stomach it.

I got another big taste of that professional sleaziness this past week when Mayor Adam Paul received two fabricated subpoenas from Lewis, Rice & Fingersh each with a $33 check attached from the firm operating account to compensatbe him for time and travel expenses.  Both were supposedly issued under the authority of the City of Ellisville in the matter related to the Revocation of the (now expired) Conditional Use Permit for the Sansone Wal-Mart Project.  The only problem:  The City Council NEVER voted, as required by Municipal Code, to issue a subpoena to Mayor Paul directing him to appear in the offices of Lewis, Rice & Fingersh on Monday, September 23, 2013 at 9:30 AM.  Oops…